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Is BAM going in the right direction?

Sometimes an "outsider" can see a shape that is different from one who is too close to things, or on the inside. I don't claim to be one that can see things, but I do feel that there is much going on that needs to be reported, and maybe even discussed.

Why Malaysia? Why BAM? That's easy. Malaysia has been traditionally one of the great powerhouses of my beloved game. BAM is the custodian of the game in Malaysia. And the game is going down in Malaysia. Fast.

My question has been asked in many other threads. Maybe a single thread will allow all of the interested parties to come together to discuss it.

Malaysian coach fears for future

QINGDAO, China: Malaysian coach Rashid Sidek said he was worried about the future of men’s badminton in his country ahead of their vital Sudirman Cup opener on Monday.

Malaysia boast world Number One Lee Chong Wei, but Rashid said he feared there was little else coming through the ranks to take over from the wily 28-year-old.

“Some of the back-up players need to change their attitude and thinking as they are lagging far behind Chong Wei,” warned Rashid.

“This is something we must address and I hope the players realise that if they want to succeed, they have to work harder than they are doing now,” he told the Badminton World Federation (BWF) website.

Malaysia, who have brought a young squad to Qingdao, take on Russia on Monday in the world mixed team championships, where hosts and holders China are strong favourites to lift the trophy once again.

“If you look at all the other countries, they are also suffering like Malaysia in the sense that their current top players such as Lin Dan in China and Taufik Hidayat in Indonesia are vastly superior to the back-up or second-ranked players,” said Rashid.

“The difference is, the back-up players in those countries are consistently beating Malaysia’s back-up players. This is very worrying indeed and I hope our players look to Chong Wei as a source of inspiration.

“He has showed that a Malaysian can survive being at the top of the world rankings for a long time and consistently win big tournaments. Now it is up to them to emulate his feats.”

What fair play, BAM?

FAIRNESS and fair play are rules sportsmen and sportswomen the world over abide by.

Try telling that to the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), who unceremonously dropped former internationals Gan Teik Chai-Tan Bin Shen from the World Championships in London from Aug 8-14.

This is despite the duo, sponsored by Apacs and KL Rackets, having worked their socks off to qualify on merit. And not to mention sourcing for their own funds to compete in the qualifying tournaments.

Their place instead went to Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif-Hoon Thien How, with BAM giving a myriad of excuses to justify their move.

Say what you want, but Teik Chai-Bin Shen fought the race well, despite not being as privileged as their fully-funded BAM counterparts, to finish 16th in the world – just 12 rungs behind top shuttlers Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong and far ahead of the other elite and back-up shuttlers.

And what did BAM do? They kept Teik Chai-Bin Shen in the dark about their participation until the 11th hour before dropping the bombshell on them.

It was simply too late for Teik Chai-Bin Shen to fight for their right.

Hopefully, their plight will help BAM right the wrong in their selection process.

Although BAM secretary and coaching and training committee chairman Ng Chin Chai stood by their decision to drop Teik Chai-Bin Shen, at least he conceded that their selection processes could be improved.

Chin Chai had also said that the decision was done in the best interest of the nation.
What he, and the whole of BAM, fail to understand is that their action smacks of high-handedness and unfairness.

Won’t Teik Chai-Bin Shen be representing Malaysia in London? Of course they will.
Won’t they go all out to bring glory, honour and fame for the country? Of course they will.

For goodness sake, they earned the right to compete in London.

So, what is the problem?

Does a badminton player becomes less of a Malaysian and less patriotic if he does not come under the BAM banner?

What makes BAM’s decision all the more puzzling is the inclusion of veteran singles shuttler Wong Choon Hann for the world meet.

The BAM could have dropped Choong Hann and named Liew Daren or Goh Soon Huat for the singles event, right?

No, they admitted that the 34-year-old pro was still the better bet compared to any of their own players.

Inconsistency in BAM’s decision-making process will only make players question the national body’s actions.

Is favouritism and biasness prevalent in the system?, they may ask.

BAM have to be fair to their current set of players as well as those outside of their stable. After all, these players have sacrificed a lot for the game.

It is BAM’s responsibility to take care of these former players.

They should maintain a good relationship with the players, even after they leave the national set-up.

This will provide a win-win situation whereby the BAM can tap into their wealth of experience while the former players will have the national body’s blessings to compete in tournaments and in the setting up of badminton academies.

BAM did well to hire former top women’s singles shuttler Wong Mew Choo as the Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS) coach.

But more than just keeping them within the four walls of the BAM, it would do a world of good to the image of Malaysian sport if BAM can continue to support their players long after they have left the national body.

QINGDAO, China: Malaysian coach Rashid Sidek said he was worried about the future of men’s badminton in his country ahead of their vital Sudirman Cup opener on Monday.

Malaysia boast world Number One Lee Chong Wei, but Rashid said he feared there was little else coming through the ranks to take over from the wily 28-year-old.

“Some of the back-up players need to change their attitude and thinking as they are lagging far behind Chong Wei,” warned Rashid.
“This is something we must address and I hope the players realise that if they want to succeed, they have to work harder than they are doing now,” he told the Badminton World Federation (BWF) website.

Malaysia, who have brought a young squad to Qingdao, take on Russia on Monday in the world mixed team championships, where hosts and holders China are strong favourites to lift the trophy once again.

“If you look at all the other countries, they are also suffering like Malaysia in the sense that their current top players such as Lin Dan in China and Taufik Hidayat in Indonesia are vastly superior to the back-up or second-ranked players,” said Rashid.
“The difference is, the back-up players in those countries are consistently beating Malaysia’s back-up players. This is very worrying indeed and I hope our players look to Chong Wei as a source of inspiration.

“He has showed that a Malaysian can survive being at the top of the world rankings for a long time and consistently win big tournaments. Now it is up to them to emulate his feats

It s not the attitude or the lack of diligence, it s the lack of competitive experience. How many tournaments did LCW play consistently before he won his first title?

When a chief coach cannot even figure out the key problem, he is redundant and should be sacked. Then use his salary to fund more tournaments for the back up players. Easily equivalent to 24 tournament expenses? 3 more tournaments each for the four backup players!

But one has to understand also that funding for competition comes from tax-payers money.

Honestly, I think the youngsters in MAS like Chong Wei Feng, Daren Liew, etc have enough exposure to international tourneys.

Just how many tourneys are you expecting them to participate in? 15? 20?

I just browsed through Ratchanok's tourney participation records in 2009 and 2010 and she was only competing in 7 tourneys in 2009 (+1 more for SEA Games perhaps) and 11 in 2010 (+2 more team events in the Uber Cup & Asian Games).

But one has to understand also that funding for competition comes from tax-payers money.

Honestly, I think the youngsters in MAS like Chong Wei Feng, Daren Liew, etc have enough exposure to international tourneys.

Just how many tourneys are you expecting them to participate in? 15? 20?

I just browsed through Ratchanok's tourney participation records in 2009 and 2010 and she was only competing in 7 tourneys in 2009 (+1 more for SEA Games perhaps) and 11 in 2010 (+2 more team events in the Uber Cup & Asian Games).

MS is 2x or 3x more competitive. Try browsing through Sho Sasaki s history or Yamada s.
It s not just how many tournaments. To achieve ranking in top 28 will probably require some 15 tournaments a year for 2 or 3 years depending on how lucky they are with draws and how smart their coaches are in selecting less popular SS. DL once had decent ranking but I believe he was not sent for many tournaments to sustain it and when he competed again, he had to play qualifying. That s like moving forward two steps and then backwards two steps. Isn t that a waste of money? Either do it well or
not at all.
Remember DL has a knack of upsetting supposedly better opponents. CWF looks like he has bulked up so he may be fixing up his problem. The point is MAS backups are not given sufficient competitive exposures to hone their tactics and show their real worth.
By the way, is Rashid s salary paid by taxpayers? That s an even greater waste of funds.
I still wonder how many tournaments within what period LCW played before he won his first GPGold title. Anyone can tell?

What can we do? There must be a way to reform this organization... the stupidity and ignorance are taking its toll on my brain... National interest my foot! Wish I could tell that on those faces residing in the CTC as well as the what-are-you? president.

But one has to understand also that funding for competition comes from tax-payers money.

Honestly, I think the youngsters in MAS like Chong Wei Feng, Daren Liew, etc have enough exposure to international tourneys.

Just how many tourneys are you expecting them to participate in? 15? 20?

I just browsed through Ratchanok's tourney participation records in 2009 and 2010 and she was only competing in 7 tourneys in 2009 (+1 more for SEA Games perhaps) and 11 in 2010 (+2 more team events in the Uber Cup & Asian Games).

I think they have given enough tournament before this, only they dont played enough matches as they often got defeated in R1 or 2........for so many years already !!

Just how many tourneys are you expecting them to participate in? 15? 20?

I just browsed through Ratchanok's tourney participation records in 2009 and 2010 and she was only competing in 7 tourneys in 2009 (+1 more for SEA Games perhaps) and 11 in 2010 (+2 more team events in the Uber Cup & Asian Games).

Even Michelle Li(who is only 18 or 19) from Canada gets more tournaments than MAS backups. How can you say that MAS backups have enough tournaments?

BAM CTC committee members are mostly CEOs from cooperate world who believe only in short term or instant result rather than long term development. That's why they only send KKK/TBH and LCW to almost all the tournaments all year long because they can bring back titles. As a results, these few got so burnt out at the end of the year. Even LCW said in sudirman interview that his body condition is better these days because he did not participate in as many tournaments this year. Hendrawan also publically aired his displeasure claiming that CTC was impatient because they want immediate results in the star article. This is fair if you are in a cooperate world but that is not how you groom young players. If young players can be groomed overnight, I guess everyone is a Lin Dan then. Those backup were only playing the role of sparring partners in BAM most of the time. If you were in their shoes, would you feel motivated to train harder? It was so obvious that so much emphasis was place on the London Olympics candidates while the others were left in the dark. There is almost no emphasis being placed on backup players...let alone groom them to be star players.

Please don't forget that Li Mao was upset because he could not pick players to train as a MS chief coach. And the departure of Misbun also speak alot about the over interference of CTC in coaches' work. Hendrawan also complained about BAM constant shuffles of his charges...saying that BAM is interrupting the training programme of the youngsters. From here you can see that nothing has change in the way BAM manage the sport organization. It's funny to see how those amateurs were trying to tell the coaches how to groom players by coming up with KPI when they
1) have no idea how to train players
2) have no information on how to rate a badminton coach-based on results of tournaments? I can tell you that no competent sport organization will solely based a coach ability on that.
3) couldn't even find enough money to keep the organization running.

Enough have been said about them. The irony is those who can coach mostly left the setup while most of the incompetent ones stay in the management. It is actually incredible that Malaysia still has LCW and KKK/TBH to carry the flag at the international stage. And the fact that, they have shortage in WS coaches in both BJSS(WMC have to coach 7 students in one go right on her first day of her job) and BAM speak alot about the talents shortage Malaysia is facing at the moment. Yet those BAM geniuses still can find ways to get rid of able coaches from the setup(lastest casualty being Misbun).

For a country of 27 million people, I don't think the Malaysian team is doing that badly. Probably everyone should be resigned to the fact that there is simply a smaller pool of players to choose from, compared with China (1.3 billion) or even Indonesia (200+ million) or South Korea (48 million) and Japan (127 million). We should actually be looking towards Denmark (5.5 million), to see how they've managed to succeed in their badminton programs. I think they have a more active club scene, most definitely. One can put all the money they want in the programs but if there is only a small pool of talent to choose from then not much can really be accomplished. Every once in a while you'll have your Sidek brothers and Lee Chong Weis but certainly not an "assembly line" of good players like in China to "replenish" the older generation of players.

@Voltric: and yet, there was a time not too long ago, when Malaysia by your reasoning, was producing an inordinate number of world-class players. That too, in an atmosphere where there was less "corporate input." It was the same with Indonesia, probably even more so.

Today, there is more money in the sport than ever before; more rewards for the successful than before. And yet, the results have almost dried up to a trickle. Now, a once-great country has to be satisfied with the emergence of an occasional world-class player?

I don't think population has too much to do with it either. Look at Denmark... OTOH the South-east and far-east Asian countries have badminton "in their blood." They know instinctively how to play the game. I think the problem lies elsewhere. Motivation. Diligence. Support. Encouragement. Consistency of all these attributes. Probably some other stuff as well.